BCSD Staff Newsletter May 2017
Superintendent Letter to Staff


Dear Colleagues,

The Blaine County School District's mission is to inspire, engage, educate and empower every student.

Everyday there is more and more evidence of accomplishing these goals: increasing attendance rates, increasing graduation rates, and the number of students successfully participating  in advanced opportunities, bike clubs, robotics, music awards, drama awards, new outdoor education programs and much more.

However, we still have numerous students who are not engaged, educated, and empowered as illustrated by the lack of mastering the Idaho Content Standards. This results in an achievement/opportunity gap between students. In order to make significant progress in closing this gap, the focus for the 2017-18 year will be on greatly reducing this gap. 

This will be done by strategically focusing on:

1) student engagement,
2) improving elementary reading outcomes, and
3) improving the use of academic language at the secondary level.

Our district-wide work next year will focus primarily on these three areas.  By learning and growing together we will continue to improve our practice and reach more students for success.

Want to join me on with a jump start this summer on this learning?  Join me in reading one of the following titles and then come to my house on August 17 for dinner and discussion.  Sign up for the book you want to read at 2017 Summer Book Club.

  • Student Voice: The Instrument of Change by Russell Quaglia and Michael Corso
  • Rethinking Grading by Cathy Vatterott (supports the clarity piece of student engagement)
  • Building Academic Language (Grades 5-12) by Jeff Zwiers
  • Improving Comprehension with Think-Aloud Strategies by Jeffrey Wilhelm
  • Making Sense of Phonics: The Hows and Whys by Beck & Beck

Happy reading,

GwenCarol

Teaching & Learning

Co-Teaching in BCSD

As we know, the Idaho core standards are imbedded with increased rigor, language demands, and application of skills. We also know that all students are expected to meet these standards.

Prior to our new standards, it was typical to teach language separate of content. With our new standards, the learning of language is embedded in the standards.



Idaho also adopted new English language standards for English language learners. These new standards expand language development to include more than vocabulary, but also text complexity, language structures, discourse, grammar, and more in five areas: Language of Math, Language of Language Arts, Language of Science, Language of Social Studies and Social Instructional Language.



Our students are expected to know the content standards of each content area, as well as the language structures within each so they can communicate through listening, speaking, reading and writing as a Scientist, Historian, Mathematician, etc.

What is a teacher to do with this increased rigor and expanded accountability for our students' language and content knowledge? Our previous practices of teaching language separate from content makes it difficult to meet the standards for all students within the instructional time we have. We have a shared responsibility for language development and helping all students meet the standards. It will take all of us to working together to achieve this goal.

Teams of teachers have been researching, practicing and implementing the co-teaching model across all our schools as a tool to support all learners in meeting the content and language demands of our standards.
Buildings and Grounds

The Buildings and Grounds Department would like to thank everyone for their patience with regard to spring field use.  Even though the snow came off quickly, the cool wet weather kept us from being able to fully utilize them until last week.

Nearly all of the parking lots have been swept and will be striped soon.  The irrigation systems are being brought online and mowing has begun.  The WRMS irrigation improvement project is moving along and will allow us to utilize well water instead of City of Hailey municipal water starting this spring.  

We are keeping a close watch on the river as the high water season begins.  We have bagged up around 600 sandbags and will add another 400 to our stockpile. If needed, large concrete barriers are being stored at the Carey School, and could be hauled up.  There is a very high water content in the mountains to the north, and this may present problems for structures in the low lying areas of the valley.

We are gearing up for a busy summer.  The much needed WRMS locker room/restroom project is moving forward.  Crews will actually begin removing lockers and performing partial demolition before school is out for summer.  There have been discussions by the demolition company that they will likely be using robotic machines to perform a good portion of the work removing wall tile and breaking up concrete in the locker rooms.  There are hopes that students will be able to come in and view a "real world" application of industrial machines in action.  Stay tuned.
Communications


Blackboard is excited to announce a new page editing experience for our Web Community Manager users, coming this summer! Get a first look at the new interface in this short video!

Finance
Finance Team, pictured left to right: Val Seamons, Karen Hoffman, Susan Kniffen and Bryan Fletcher.

1.  Please remember that Personal Professional Development requests need to be submitted to your supervisor for pre-approval before any funds are spent.

2.  When submitting a receipt as part of a reimbursement request - we need the copy of the receipt which includes the details of the purchase.  Due to auditing purposes we can not accept a receipt that simply lists the amount paid.  This applies to credit card receipts as well.  For instance - a dinner that is paid with a credit card - we will need the copy of the credit card receipt that includes the details of the food & drink items purchased, and not the copy that simply provides the total charged.  

3.  When making purchases for items that you plan on submitting for reimbursement, please pay for these items separate from items that will not be reimbursed.  This way the receipt that you submit for reimbursement will only include items that you are requesting to be reimbursed.  

4.  When submitting for travel please send your Travel Pre-approval Request Form in with a minimum of four weeks prior to your departure date so that we can ensure proper time exists to complete the details of the trip planning and approval.
Human Resources


Employee Assistance Program:   1-800-999-1077 or visit www.EAPHelplink.com Company Code: EAPNOW
Idaho Teaching Certificate will be expiring September 1st of this year.    

Needing to Renew your Idaho Educator Certification?
For specific rules on re-certifying and which credits/in-service clock hours apply, review the applicable State/Board Rule by clicking on the link:: http://www.sde.idaho.gov/cert-psc/cert/apply/renewal.html

Mountain Rides Student and Staff Bus Passes Discounted:
Reminder: since we are over halfway through the school year we have cut the bus pass price in half.
So students are $20 for the rest of the year.
Staff is $60 for the rest of the year.

American Fidelity:
Will be visiting all buildings beginning the week of May 8th, 2017.  This provides all employees the opportunity to meet with a AF Representative  to review voluntary benefits for the upcoming 2017-2018 Benefit Plan Year.  Check with your secretary or human resources for more details.

Planning on retiring or have retirement questions?  Make an appointment with Shannon Maza in HR
email: smaza@blaineschools.org or ext. 5013 or direct line 208-578-5013
Transportation

As we get closer to the end of the school year, all of those projects that students have been creating may need to go home.  Please remember that buses are very crowded especially at the elementary level. Students are only allowed to bring items that can fit on their lap.  If they already have a backpack, that doesn't leave much room for other things.  Please arrange for some other method for sending large displays or projects home.  We have the responsibility to transport students first, and unfortunately, projects may not be allowed on the bus.  Please work with parents to transport these items to and from school.
Reminder: Vote on May 16
There is an election on May 16.  The 1% Local Option Tax and Trustee Zones 2 and 4 will be on the ballot.
Ketchum, Sun Valley and Hailey Voters will vote on the 1% Local Option Tax.

Zone 2 and 4 Voters: Board of Trustees Election
Graduation Parade

A parade of the Class of 2017 is coming soon to a hallway near you.  Principals John Pearce and John Peck are planning on a parade of 2017 graduates who will visit elementary and middle schools. The purpose is to celebrate our graduates and inspire the younger students to set their sights on the future.  We also want to celebrate the accomplishments of all staff members who contribute to the success of each and every graduate.

Carey School: May 26th at 2:00 p.m. after graduation practice.

WRHS: Friday, June 2 at 11:00 a.m. (Students will board buses and disperse to various elementary schools and the middle school.)

Certified Staff (Wood River Valley): Look for an E-vite in your email with an invitation to Wood River High School's graduation.  A special section of seating will be reserved and certified staff are asked to RSVP to their building principals. We are not providing childcare for this and it is limited to one ticket per teacher.  WRHS looks forward to seeing certified staff at graduation on Friday, June 2!